Image source,Reuters
Zeng Yixin, deputy director of China’s National Health Commission, said at a press conference that it is impossible to accept such a traceability plan.
On the morning of July 22, the Chinese government held a press conference, expressly rejecting the World Health Organization (WHO)’s second-stage investigation plan for the traceability of the new crown.
Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission of China, said at the meeting that the second phase of WHO’s plan to “violate laboratory procedures causing virus leakage in China” was one of the research priorities, which revealed that the plan “disrespect for common sense and scientific Arrogant attitude”.
“It is impossible for us to accept such a traceability plan,” he said. “We oppose the politicization of traceability.”
Previously, the World Health Organization proposed that the second phase of the investigation should be launched in China for the traceability of the new crown. The subjects of the investigation include relevant laboratories, research institutions and markets in Wuhan.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus) also publicly urged China on July 15 to provide more cooperation and transparency in the second phase of the WHO investigation.
Laboratory leak
At a press conference held on the morning of the 22nd by the Information Office of the State Council on the theme of COVID-19 traceability, Zeng Yixin said that when he first saw the second phase of the WHO traceability plan, he was “very surprised” because the laboratory leak said it became A key research project of the plan.
Image source,Reuters
He said, “So far, none of the staff and graduate students of the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been infected with the new coronavirus, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology has not carried out research on the benefits of coronavirus, and there is no so-called artificial virus.”
Zeng Yixin also said that the WHO expert team personally visited the Wuhan Virus Institute at the beginning of this year and concluded that it is “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from the laboratory. “We should respect their conclusions.” The stage traceability plan “in some respects can be said to be neither respecting common sense, but also against science.”
The WHO traceability research expert team conducted an investigation in China from January to February this year, and concluded that the virus leaked from the laboratory is “extremely impossible”, and direct transmission to humans through animal hosts is “probable to more likely.” , Transmission from bats to humans through another intermediate animal host is “more likely to very likely”, and transmission through refrigerated food is also a “possible route.”
The head of the WHO Investigation Team, Peter Ben Embarek, said at a press conference on March 30 that because the laboratory leaked that it was not the key or main focus of their China study, this hypothesis “has nothing to do with it. Other hypotheses get the same attention and depth of work.”
Image source,Reuters
In February of this year, the WHO delegation held a press conference after its trip to Wuhan. Tan Desai’s latest speech emphasized that it should not be prematurely concluded to deny laboratory leaks of viruses.
US President Joe Biden ordered in May this year that intelligence agencies “intensify their efforts” to investigate the source of the virus, including claims that a laboratory accident may occur in China.
Tedros said on July 15 that more investigations are needed before the laboratory leak hypothesis is completely ruled out. The WHO needs to know the direct information of relevant laboratories before and at the time of the new crown epidemic in order to rule out the epidemic and the laboratory. Relevance.
The battle for raw data sharing
Tedros also said last week that the first phase of the WHO’s traceability investigation in China has encountered challenges because the original data on the initial stage of the virus’s spread has not been shared.
Liang Wannian, the Chinese leader of the China-WHO Covid-19 Joint Research Expert Group, said at a press conference on the 22nd that China had “all displayed” the data of early patients when the WHO expert group entered Wuhan, but it was due to China’s privacy concerns. According to regulations, China did not agree to provide the original data, nor did it allow WHO experts to copy or take photos.
“What do you mean by not providing it? Actually, I showed it to you and we analyzed it together. We thought it was provided, but you were not allowed to take the data away,” he said, when international experts “gave a full understanding.”
“What is raw data? Do we finally analyze these data after some sorting and analysis, or do we want the most primitive things and data at each point? This is very different in understanding. I remember that time When we were doing research, our team of experts had no opinion on this point, and believed that the data provided by China was researched together,” he added.
Image source,Getty Images
Virus database offline
Another key point in the laboratory leak is that the virus database managed by the Wuhan Institute of Virology will be offline in 2019, and whether all the genetic sequences collected in the database since the outbreak will be published.
In response to this, Yuan Zhiming, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, responded on the 22nd that the database of the Institute of Virology is a preliminary framework and is still being improved. Because the website of the Institute of Virus, including the team of researcher Shi Zhengli, has suffered a large number of malicious attacks. At present, the database is only shared internally in Wuhan Institute of Virology. After analyzing and sorting out some raw data, the project team will publish research results in the form of papers, and display and retrieve them in the database in a visual manner.
At the press conference on the 22nd, Chinese representatives and officials also called on WHO to extend the traceability work to other countries outside of China.
“For the laboratory…Of course, we do not rule out that if some new evidence emerges, then further research can be done. If some countries need further research in this area, we suggest from the perspective of Chinese experts. Countries that have not conducted laboratory investigations like Wuhan have done so, at least they have a better understanding of possible leaks, which are actually safety issues,” said Liang Wannian.